Vijayawada turns red as thousands take out rally

Vijayawada: Thousands of workers participated in a massive rally here on Wednesday as part of the nationwide general strike, vowing to continue their struggle until the four Labour Codes introduced by the Central government are repealed. The city turned red with workers marching in large numbers, raising slogans against what they termed as anti-labour policies.

The rally began from One Town Ratham Centre and proceeded up to Lenin Centre. Left party leaders and activists welcomed the workers near the Railway Station and extended solidarity to the ongoing strike.

Leaders of central trade unions and farmers’ organisations demanded that the Centre withdraw the four Labour Codes, fix a minimum wage of Rs 30,000 per month, and strictly implement existing labour laws.

They also called for the rollback of amendments to the Seed Act, changes to the Employment Guarantee Act, and Electricity Act reforms.

The speakers demanded the scrapping of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and implementation of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), besides withdrawing the decision to privatize banks and halting the privatization of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.

Addressing the gathering, CPM state secretary V Srinivasa Rao and CITU state president A V Nageswara Rao said the nationwide strike was being observed in protest against the policies of the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.

They claimed that 35 crore workers across the country were participating in the strike. They alleged that while the Centre was introducing anti-worker policies, the coalition government in the State was eager to implement them.

The leaders criticised the government for not providing minimum wages and legal protections to scheme workers. They said contract and outsourcing employees had actively joined the strike and expressed concern that under the new Labour Codes, their prospects of regularisation would become uncertain. They demanded immediate regularisation of three lakh contract workers in Andhra Pradesh and implementation of ‘equal pay for equal work.’

The public meeting held after the rally was presided over by AITUC city leaders M Sambasiva Rao and K Durga Rao.

Several prominent leaders attended the programme, including CPI state secretary G Eswaraiah, CPM leaders, ML factions, RSP, IFTU, AICCTU, AIUTUC, TUCI, YSR Trade Union representatives, Anganwadi and ASHA workers’ union leaders, electricity, BSNL, LIC, bank employees.

The leaders warned that if the four Labour Codes are not repealed immediately, workers’ movements would be intensified in the coming days.